Holder



June 19, 1956 H. P. BIRKEMEIER 2,751,053

HOLDER Original Filed Dec. 8, 1948 j l Y' `f l United States PatentO i HOLDER Henry P. Birkemeier, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Bell.& Gossett Company, Morton Grove, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Original application December 8, 1948, Serial No. 64,221, now Patent No. 2,635,718, dated April 21, 1953. Divided and this application February 25, 1953, Serial No. 338,863

3 Claims. (Cl. 189-45) My invention relates to a holder for maintaining another part in an original position and which possesses the capacity for being reset after release by exposure to a predetermined temperature.

While capable of use generally such as determining the opening or closing of a valve or other part, the device will be described in connection with a lire door of typical construction. Such a door, customarily placed in a selected location in a building, is ordinarily held in an open position for Ventilating or other purposes by means of a link partly composed of a low melting point metal so that when exposed to a predetermined temperature, the link ruptures and permits the door to close by gravity or a suitable spring mechanism. After rupture, such a link is valueless and must be replaced by a new link.

It is therefore one object of the invention to provide a. holder which is capable of indelinite use by reason of its ability to be reset for normal operation after each release.

A further object is to devise a holder of the character indicated in which the resetting capacity may be embodied in a structure including thermally responsive members such as a bimetal strip or a bellows.

These and further objects of the invention will be set forth in the following specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, and the novel means by which said objects are elfectuated, will be definitely pointed out in the claims.

This application is a division of my copending application for Fire Door Holder, Ser. No. 64,221, liled December 8, 1948, now Pat. No. 2,635,718, dated April 21, 1953.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a plan view of one form of my improved holder which utilizes a bimetal member as the arresting factor for a connected lire door or other element.

Fig. 2 is a View looking in the direction of the arrow 2 in Fig. l and diagrammatically showing the holder connected to a gravity closed lire door.

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1, but showing a modiiied form of holder which employs a bellows member as the arresting factor.

Fig. 4 is an end view of the holder shown in Fig. 3 looking in the direction of the arrow 4.

Fig. 5 shows a holder shaped as a tongs and equipped with a bellows which acts as the thermally responsive member.

Fig. 6 is an end view of the holder shown in Fig. 5 looking in the direction of the arrow 6.

Fig. 7 is a variation of the tongs holder shown in Fig. 5 in which the tongs is composed of a bimetal strip.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, the numeral 10 designates one form of the holder which comprises a bracket 11 for fastening to a convenient part of a building and projecting laterally therefrom is a bifurcated arm 12 between whose limbs is rotatably mounted a disk 13 having quadrant related fingers 14 extending from the periphery thereof and beyond the end of the arm 12. A bimetal member 15 has one end secured to the bracket 11 and the Patented June 19, 1956 "Ice opposite end is positioned in easy abutting relation to one of the lingers 14, with the intermediate portion, including the latter end, offset from the bracket. As viewed in Fig. 5, the lower strip of the member 15 is characterized by a higher thermal coeliicient than the other strip. Hence, when the member 15 is heated, it will bow upwardly.

When the holder is installed, the disk 13 may be positioned in any plane and the looped end of a wire 16 is engaged with one of the lingers 14 while the other end of the wire is secured to a lire door 17 which is pivoted to open or close a passage 18 in the building, the door 17 being generically indicative of any part whoseposition is determined by the holder. At this time, the bimetal member 15 is in a position engaging another one of the ngers 14, thus preventing rotation of the disk 13 by the gravity pull of the door, it being understood that when the wire 16 is attached to a finger 14 as shown, the length of the wire is such as to hold the door in the open position shown in Fig. 2.

In a characteristic installation, as exemplilied in Figs. 1 and 2, the weight of the door 17 tends to rotate the disk 13 in a counterclockwise direction, with the looped end of the wire 16 fastened to that linger 14 which lies outwardly of the arm 12. Hence, if a fire occurs in the building, the heated bimetal member will bow upwardly as viewed in Fig. l and will free the disk 13 for rotation and the door 17 will swing to a closed position. Preferably, each linger is curved or otherwise shaped in a trailing direction with respect to the rotation direction of the disk so that the looped end of the wire 16 will maintain pulling engagement therewith until the engaged linger has been rotated through an arc of about thus bringing the next linger 14 in the direction of rotation into position for reengaging the wire. Therefore, when heat is no longer present, the holder is ready for use again.

Further, it will be understood that the quadrant relation of the fingers 14 is by way of example only, since they may obviously be so spaced with reference to the linear displacement of the wire 16 necessary to move the lire door from an open to a closed position that a new linger 14 is correctly positioned for reengagement with the wire when the door is closed. Accordingly, the linger spacing may be adjusted for different installations, but the quadrant spacing does provide a good, general design suitable for a variety of situations.

. The modilication shown in Figs. 3 and 4 is a variation of that illustrated in Fig. l in that it includes a latch-like arrangement, but substitutes a thermally responsive bellows for the bimetal member. The numeral 19 designates a bracket for attachment to the building and from one end of which laterally projects a pair of spaced arms 20-20 between which is rotatably mounted a disk 21 having spaced lingers 22 extending from the periphery thereof. A second arm 23 projects from an intermediate part of the bracket 19 and carries a platform 24 on which is rested as an abutment one end of a bellows 25 which is filled with any of the liquids customarily used in a thermally responsive member of this type. The opposite end of the bellows 25 is secured to an intermediate portion of a lever 26, one end of which is pivoted at 27 in offset relation to the bracket 19 and the other end normally engages one of the fingers 22 to prevent rotation thereof under the pull of the lire door wire 16, the latter position of the lever 26 corresponding to a fully retracted condition of the bellows. lf a lire occurs, it will be obvious that the heat engendered extension of the bellows 25 will move the lever 26 to a release position and will thus free the disk 21 for rotation and permit the lire door to close. When the heat is removed, the bellows retracts to the position shown in Fig. 3 and the lever 26 is reengaged with one of the lingers 22.

In Figs. and 6 is illustrated a further modification comprising a tongs 28 composed of spring metal and having a pair of arms 29-29 which are joined at one end of the member by a connector 3f) that is intermediately secured to a fixed part 31 constituting a part of the building. The arms 29 may therefore be moved away from and towards each other and the separating and contracting movements are effected by a liquid filled bellows 32 whose opposite ends, respectively, abut the inner sides of the arms 29 and have guiding relation therewith by means of pins 33 which extend through the arms. The free ends of the arms 29 are bent inwardly to provide oppositely disposed jaws or fingers 34-34 whose inner ends are slightly spaced to define an elongated opening 35 and the opposing faces of the jaws are centrally notched at 36-36 to fit and prevent sidewise movements of a fire door wire 37. The wire is inserted in the notches by slightly opening the jaws 34 and to facilitate this insertion, the entrance at one end of the opening 35 may be enlarged by beveling each jaw at 38. Disengagement of the wire 37 from the jaws under the pull of the fire door is prevent by a knob 39 secured to the wire and which contacts the inner faces of the jaws.

With the parts in the positions shown in Fig. 5, the fire door is held open, but when a fire occurs, the length extension of the bellows 32 spreads the arms 29 and hence the jaws 34 and frees the wire 37 so that the fire door may close. When the heat is removed, the spring action of the arms 29 retracts the bellows and the wire 37 is reengaged with the jaws 34 to recondition the holder for reuse.

A variation of the tongs type of construction is illustrated in Fig. 7 in which the tongs 40 is shaped like the tongs 28 and the parts with which the tongs 40 is associated are identical with those shown in Fig. 5 and are identified by the same numerals. The separating force for the arms 41 and jaws or fingers 42 of the tongs 40 is provided by making the tongs of bimetal and locating that component strip thereof which has the higher thermal coefficient inwardly of the tongs. Hence, when subjected to heat, the tong arms will separate and free the wire 37 and when the heat is removed, the tongs 40 will automatically recondition itself for attachment to the wire as above described.

I claim:

1. A resettable holder comprising a disk journaled for rotation and having a plurality of fingers extending therefrom for engagement of a selected finger with a tensioned connector attached to a movable part, the pull of the connector when the part is in one position tending to rotate the disk, and thermally responsive means normally engaging another finger to prevent rotation of the disk and acting at a predetermined temperature to disengage the last named finger and free the disk for rotation.

2. A resettable holder comprising a disk journaled for rotation and having a plurality of fingers extending therefrom for engagement of a selected finger with a tensioned connector attached to a movable part, the pull of the connector when the part is in one position tending to rotate the disk, and a bimetal member normally engaging another finger to prevent rotation of the disk and acting at a predetermined temperature to disengage the last named finger and free the disk for rotation.

3. A resettable holder comprising a disk journaled for rotation and having a plurality of fingers extending therefrom for engagement of a selected finger with a tensioned connector attached to a movable part, the pull of the connector when the part is in one position tending to rotate the disk, a lever having its end normally engaging another finger to prevent rotation of the disk, and a liquid filled bellows operably related to the lever and acting by its extension at a predetermined temperature to move the lever to a position free of the last named finger.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,111,362 Carrigan Sept. 22, 1914 1,950,843 Fischer Mar. 13, 1934 2,253,861 McKune et al Aug. 26, 1941 2,635,718 Birkemeier Apr. 21, 1953 

